The Thai circuit of Buriram has a thing or two with one-off lineups when it comes to the Asian Le Mans Series, as a complete overhaul in the lineup of the No. 7 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca saw Weiron Tan and Afiq Yazid join Jazeman Jaafar in their first win of the season, leading a 1-2 of the Chinese team.
The No. 37 BBT Ligier was working hard at the start to avoid a Jackie Chan DC Racding one-two, though it took only a few corners for this to happen, with the No. 8 Oreca leading the No. 7. The LMP3 class had an initial charge from the No. 18 KCMG Ligier that saw it open the gap to the No. 65 Viper NIZA Ligier, while Guy Cosmo in the No. 6 DC Racing Ligier was recovering from a bad start and climbing the field from fourth in class.
In between these battles the fight for the GT class settled for a heated clash between the No. 90 AAI Ferrari and the No. 66 TianShi Audi, with Ollie Millroy outpacing Max Wiser after 30 minutes of pursuit.
The first pit stop window secured the lead for the No. 8 DC Racing Oreca, as a penalty for the No. 37 BBT Ligier and an unintended stop for the No. 7 DC Racing Oreca due to a track cone going underneath the car slowed their progress. Another car eventually getting problems was the No. 90 AAI Ferrari with a right rear puncture, leaving the GT class lead to the No. 66 TianShi Audi.
The second hour consolidated the lead for the No. 8 DC Racing Oreca in LMP2 and for the No. 18 KCMG Ligier in LMP3, with no threats for the former and a spin of the No. 65 Viper NIZA Ligier helping the latter, but eventually the No. 6 DC Racing Ligier rose to the LMP3 lead in the late moments of the second hour.
The No. 7 DC Racing Oreca eventually gained ground and took the lead of the No. 8 due to its gearbox issues, and in LMP3 the No. 18 KCMG Ligier had the No. 11 Taiwan Beer GH Ligier on its rear end despite an early spin, with the No. 1 WIN Motorsport Ligier also in close pursuit of the leading duo, though while the contenders fell at some point of the fifth hour, the No. 18 prevailed consistent. In contradiction to this, the GT class saw the No. 91 AAI BMW steal the lead from the No. 66 TianShi Audi, thanks to a spectacular charge of Chaz Mostert which was followed by Jesse Krohn.
While things were smooth for Weiron Tan in the No. 7 DC Racing Oreca as he kept the lead, Harrison Newey had to deal with the downshifting problems of the No. 8 car and a charging Pipo Derani in the No. 37 BBT Ligier, who was gaining 6 seconds per lap and hoping to get second place from this. Tan just had to carry the No. 7 to the finish and receive the checkered flag, and so did Newey in the No. 8 as Derani lacked the time to fight for position.
The No. 18 KCMG Ligier took LMP3 honors and the No. 91 AAI BMW won in the GT class, both without facing any threats during the final moments of the race. The GT Cup class saw the No. 77 Team NZ Porsche Cup survive the 6 hours of racing as the only car of the class.
The No. 8 DC Racing team will go to Sepang with good advantage in the title race, now having 70 points against 55 of BBT Racing. In the LMP3 class, KCMG leads DC Racing by a point, being it 53 points against 52, with Viper NIZA Racing coming as the outsider with 40 points, and in the GT class, the No. 91 AAI crew had 69 points against 60 of the No. 90 AAI, with TianShi Racing having 48 points and remote possibilities.
The 4 Hours of Sepang, which will close the current Asian LMS season, will be held on February 4th.
PHOTO: Asian Le Mans Series
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